T1 Energy CEO Dan Barcelo said during a Breitbart News policy event on Monday that solar power’s “scalability” and “zero marginal costs” are key strengths in the evolving energy landscape, noting that on some summer days over 50 percent of the generated power on the Texas grid is solar.
Barcelo joined Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle for a discussion on “harnessing American power” and the emergence of AI in a policy event also featuring Interior Secretary and Chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council Doug Burgum and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA).
He explained how American solar manufacturers like T1 Energy can play a critical role in supplying not only American manufacturing jobs but cost-effective energy that helps the U.S. compete with China.
“We have a five-gigawatt asset in Texas; that’s about ten percent of America’s capacity. We make American solar panels in America, we’re building a solar cell plant – two gigawatts, an even larger percentage. So, we’re all about building an American solar supply chain in America for jobs and advanced manufacturing,” Barcelo told Boyle.
Boyle said that a central theme of Monday’s Breitbart News policy event was how America can scale up its energy production for the industries of tomorrow, such as artificial intelligence, which require massive energy but hold huge economic growth potential.
The T1 Energy chief executive said that solar is quite scalable to meet the required increase in energy demand, and that his company could easily ramp up production of its American-made solar panels.
He said, “The thing with solar is that it is quite scalable, so we have one asset, 1.2 million square feet in Dallas that can produce five gigawatts of solar panels per year. Every single year we can pump out a five gigawatt solar farm. To double that capacity takes less than nine months, it requires sub half a billion dollars, so the point is that it’s scalable, it’s producible, it’s manufacturing, it’s good jobs, it’s low-cost.”
Barcelo noted that once a solar farm is installed, “there’s zero marginal cost for power.”
“That’s why for a lot of the days in the middle of the summer you will see that Texas is over 50 percent solar,” he added.
Barcelo cited China’s dramatic demand for solar panels, arguing that they too see solar power’s strength as a scalable source of power as they seek to beat the United States in the AI race.
“China dominates solar, China dominates coal, China dominates nuclear, their percentage of fossil fuels is declining to solar,” he said. “China sees the scalability part and when you want to talk about dominance of energy, the scale you touched on in your question that AI, the data centers, the hyperscalers, the manufacturing we will need is somewhat surreal, and solar plays an important part and our mission is to make that solar and manufacture that in America.”
Reports have suggested that China’s installed solar power capacity exceeds 1,000 gigawatts, which is about half of the world’s installed solar capacity.
Barcelo added that America also needs to compete in the “silicon age” — that America needs to begin to produce its own semiconductor chips. He explained that many businesses are hampered by onerous regulations and permitting, often taking “two to three times longer” to produce compared to other countries.
“All of that time is money,” he said at Monday’s Breitbart policy event.
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